Fuegos – Campoamor, La Fuente

January 2011 – We´ve cheated a bit with our review this time as Fuegos isn´t strictly a restaurant. However the chef takes great care over his menu with weekly specials and regular “tasters”, and being mid-January winter when many restaurants are closed I thought Fuegos would fit the bill nicely.

I popped in with three friends after golf last Saturday and feeling peckish we decided to sample the tapas. We ordered magre (pork in tomato sauce), alitas de pollo (chicken wings), ensalada Murciana (salad with tuna, onion, egg, tomatoes & olives) and salchichas (chorizo sausage with fried potatoes). A basket of bread came too and our selection proved to be extremely tasty and good value for sharing at around 3.50€ a portion…perfecto! Fuegos is south-facing so even at this time of year there is sunshine on the terrace and it was comfortably warm.

Warm enough in fact that we were still there long after the football finished, our original friends having departed for a siesta. We were soon joined by reinforcements though, on their way out to eat. Well settled in by now with the doors closed and the heating on we decided to stay put and called again for the menu…

We decided on sizzling garlic prawns and garlic mushrooms to start which came with fresh bread and piping hot…delicious! Our friends chose a Fuego Burger from the menu and Rib-Eye steak from the specials board, while we shared a huge plate of Nachos Grande. Somewhat of a speciality, this dish is extremely popular (judging by the number of plates of nachos that went by us!) and rightly so, its a huge mountain of nachos with chilli beef, peppers, creme freche and smothered in melted cheese…plenty for two and just scrummy! The burger was home-made and hearty and came with chips, relish and salad, our friend confirmed it tasted as good as it looked. The steak was tender and done “just right” and came with all the trimmings…Too late we noticed the Torre de Fuego, a tower of spicy wedges, bacon, creme freche, spring onions and melted cheese for 2 people, made a note to come back soon for that!!

Overall we had an extremely pleasant afternoon/evening, the food was excellent, the house wine very palatable, friendly service and we were treated to a beautiful sunset. Although not a restaurant in the strictest sense of the word, Fuego´s takes its food seriously, serving restaurant-quality food, all freshly made.

UPDATE – July 2011

Never ones to sit back Andy and Hazel have introduced a new menu, Sunday lunches and terrace barbeque on Friday evenings through the summer. They have a new chef and a new menu, still great tapas but now there are more specials and very popular they seem too, with juicy steaks, chicken and fresh fish dishes and paella. Probably now I would put Fuego in the Wine Bar/Bistro category. Way to go guys, see you again soon!